


Mad Heart

by Eliizabethx



Series: Once Upon A Descendant [6]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: 1x22, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - August Stayed, Alternate Universe - Descendants (Disney Movies) Fusion, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Family Feels, Family Reunions, Gen, POV Mad Hatter | Jefferson, Parent-Child Relationship, Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:07:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25980337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eliizabethx/pseuds/Eliizabethx
Summary: Rewrite of Jefferson's hospital break from 1x22!
Relationships: Belle & Mad Hatter | Jefferson, Mad Hatter | Jefferson & Original Female Character(s), Mad Hatter | Jefferson & Pinocchio | August Booth
Series: Once Upon A Descendant [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1884943
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	1. Part 1

**Yesterday**

“So you got my message,” the Queen says pleasantly.

“Obviously,” he drawls, compulsively flipping the card between his fingers. “You _know_ I watch her.”

“It must be painful, having your daughter _so_ near,” she comments idly, walking across the room. “Yet _just_ out of reach.”

“ _What do you want?_ ”

“Your help.”

“And what makes you think I won’t just kill you,” he hisses. “After everything you’ve done.”

“Because you know if I’m dead, you’ll _never_ get back to your daughters,” she says silkily, holding out a glass to him. “But I have a way for us to both get what we want.”

He drops the card into the glass with a blank glare. She walks away with a smirk, retrieving a familiar box from behind her couch and placing it on the table.

“My hat.”

“I want you to use it again,” she says gently, wearing a soft smile that sets his teeth on edge.

“I can’t make it work without magic, not here. No one can.” He knew that now.

“You’re in luck,” she says lightly. “Because I happen to have some. Not a lot, but hopefully enough for one last journey.”

She delicately lifts the hat from its box, presenting it to him.

He stares at it reluctantly for a moment. “Where?”

“Back to our land, where there’s a solution to a very delicate problem,” she says mysteriously, staring into the hat with a mean glint in her eyes. “How to get rid of the one person who can break my curse.”

“Emma,” he finishes for her, smirking widely at the glare she shoots him. “And why shouldn’t I let her do just that?”

“And do what, go home to your _hovel_ ?” She laughs once, turning to sit his hat on the table. “Go back to selling fungus at the fair? I gave you a _mansion_.”

He stares at her unimpressed until she sighs, roughly patting his shoulder as she passes behind him.

“We have the same problem, Jefferson. It’s about family,” she says earnestly. “We both want our children back, and we can both get them. _If_ we work together.”

“Why should I trust you now?” He asks.

“You shouldn’t,” she says honestly. “But it’s the only offer you’ve got.”

He clenches his jaw in frustration, looking towards his hat.

“After we’re through, I’ll wake up your dear Grace so she remembers who you are,” she says, trying to further entice him.

“No! Remembering is the _worst_ curse,” he growls, stalking closer. “Two lives in her head like me? I want my girls and I want to _forget_ , I want you to write us a new story. I want you to give the three of us a fresh start, here, in Storybrooke.”

She smiles like the cat that caught the canary.

“Well, dear Jefferson, then that’s _exactly_ what you’ll have. _After_ we take care of Miss Swan.”

**Yesterday Afternoon**

“Yes,” she says, holding the apple tenderly. “This is it.”

“My daughters, Grace and Hattie?” He asks, watching her carefully. Her expression flashes quickly with annoyance before she looks at him with a smile.

“Our deal isn’t done until I solve the next conundrum,” she says pleasantly. “Getting the Savior to eat it.”

He follows her out of the crypt and watches her drive away from the cemetery, a sinking feeling in his stomach. She was right, he shouldn’t trust her, and he doesn’t.

She’ll never give his daughters back to him, she probably never even had the power to.

He finds himself lingering inconspicuously outside of Granny’s place an hour later, watching the puppet step out with a troubled expression. He starts to walk in the opposite direction but freezes suddenly, his shoulders tensing as he turns around and spots Jefferson.

“ _You_ ,” he hisses as soon as he sees him, striding over and roughly pulling him around the corner of the building, out of sight of the street. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Regina asked me to do something,” he says. “I thought you’d want to know what.”

August frowns at him.

“Why the hell would you even help her to begin with?” He asks, frustration clear in his voice.

“Because I hoped she could do something that she _can’t_ ,” he snarls back. “Do you want to know _or not_? Because it involves Emma.”

“ _What did you do?!_ ” August demands, stepping forward aggressively.

“The Queen wanted me to retrieve an apple from whatever’s left of our land,” he says meaningfully. “There was already a bite taken out of it.”

August pales dramatically, his eyes going wide. “ _No._ ”

“You need to warn her,” he advises. “She’ll get her to eat it, somehow. You _know_ she’ll find a way.”

He’s already putting his phone to his ear, staring at him the whole time until Jefferson can hear Emma’s quiet voice coming through the speaker, sounding oddly choked up.

“ _August, I’m not arguing with you again, okay? I’ll call you later, Henry is here._ ”

“Emma, wait! You need to listen to me!”

“ _What? Hang on-”_ Her voice becomes slightly muffled like she’s pressed it into her shoulder. _“Yeah, it’s from your mom, to eat on the road.”_

August goes somehow paler. “Emma! You can’t eat it! Emma, are you listening? Whatever it is, _don’t eat it!_ ”

“ _What?”_ She asks, clearly distracted, and if he listens closely he can sort of hear a kid’s voice in the background. “ _Henry, you gotta stop! Your mother is not trying to poison me. I’ll prove it.”_

“No!” August yells, and Jefferson can hear the sharp echo of Henry repeating the word.

_“Henry,”_ she says exasperatedly. There’s a faint clatter and then her voice is more distant, like she’s sat the phone down. _“What are you doing?”_

_“I’m sorry it had to come to this.”_ Henry’s voice comes through faintly and even Jefferson leans closer to hear. “ _You may not believe in the curse, or in me, but I believe in_ you.”

There’s a tense pause where August and Jefferson both hold their breath, tense as anything.

_“See?”_ Emma’s voice says. _“Nothing happened. You want some ice cream with that and we can go back to talking about- Henry? Henry!_ ”

He feels his own throat go tight with sympathy as they hear her call for her son.

“No, no, no,” August chants softly, his eyes wide and his hands faintly trembling. “Emma? Emma! What happened?!”

_“August! Henry just collapsed!”_ She yells, tears clear in her voice. _“Oh my god, he was right. Oh god, she_ poisoned _him!”_

“Where are you? I’m on my way, okay?”

_“No! I’m taking him to the hospital, meet us there!”_ She hangs up as soon as the words have left her mouth, and the breath leaves August in a rush.

“Come on,” Jefferson says, lightly shoving August back towards the street.

“What?” He asks in confusion.

“I have a car,” he says. “Are you really gonna drive a motorcycle without wrecking right now? Let’s go.”


	2. Part 2

**That Night**

He waits in the corner of the room, out of sight. Watches Emma stride from the room, pulling August down the hall with her and out of sight, leaving the Queen standing next to the boy’s bed.

“ _I’m sorry_ ,” she whispers wetly, carefully touching his hand.

“There really is nothing harder than not knowing whether you’ll ever see your child again,” he says, moving up to the kid’s other side. He _knows_ she can’t give him what he wants, and yet he just can’t help himself, can’t ignore the clawing desperation that sits tightly in his chest. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Jefferson,” she says tightly, trying to draw her mask back up. “Now is not a good time.”

“No,” he agrees. “But it never will be, so I’m here to collect.”

“ _Emma_ was supposed to eat that apple, and she didn’t,” she says hotly, pain burning in her eyes. “As far as I’m concerned, our deal is null and void.”

“I got you what you wanted!” He hisses between clenched teeth. “Now you’re going to give me what _I_ want!”

“Or what?” She challenges, leaning towards him. “You’ll kill me? I know you want to, but I also know you _can’t_. You don’t have it in you. Now, if you’ll excuse-”

His hand snaps out to grab her arm, squeezing harshly.

“Where is my daughter?” He demands. “If you won’t give us a better story, then I want to know where she is. You’ve taunted me with Grace for twenty-eight _years_ , but I’ve _never_ seen Hattie in your wretched little town. Where is she?!”

She glares at him for a minute before her expression turns into a cruel smile.

“You know I never knew you’d picked up another child, not until the curse brought all of us here,” she confides, stepping around to the foot of the bed without flinching at his harsh grip. “You two were together when it struck, weren’t you?”

“Why?” He asks raggedly, watching her closely.

“Because you were right,” she says, leaning in close. “Knowing is the worst curse.”

He drops her arm as if she’d burned him. “What did you do?”

“It’s not what _I_ did, it’s what _you_ did. Knowing was _your_ curse, I didn’t know anyone else would be with you.” She straightens her jacket and brushes her hair back from her face, turning to watch Henry with an almost tender expression. “Your curse wasn’t meant for her, she didn’t adapt quite as well.”

“No,” he chokes out. “What did you do to her?”

“You might not be capable of killing, but your eldest can be quite vicious, can’t she?“ She asks idly. “I’m afraid I had to put her somewhere she wouldn’t make any scenes.”

“ _Where?_ ” He begs.

She scoffs, glaring balefully at him before she turns and strides from the room. “ _Goodbye_ , Jefferson.”

He collapses to his knees beside the bed, a few tears falling from his closed eyes.

_Hattie, I'm sorry,_ he thinks.

“She did this to him, didn’t she?” His head snaps up at the voice, finding the Queen’s daughter standing in her mother’s place at the end of the bed. Her eyes are red and puffy, and there are still damp trails visible on her cheeks as she grips the foot of the bed tight enough to bleach her knuckles white. “I don’t know who you are and I don’t understand what’s happening, but… it’s happening because of her, isn’t it?”

She must have been listening to their conversation.

His heart aches for her a little in sympathy. He had never meant to harm these children, he just wanted his daughters back.

“Yes.”

She frowns at him, her shoulders shaking in what he thinks is grief for a moment, until he sees the anger burning in her eyes.

“You helped her? You gave her whatever she used to hurt Henry?” She demands.

He hangs his head at that, nodding mutely.

“Because she knows something about your daughters?” She asks, making him look up at her in surprise. “They’re missing?”

“My oldest,” he says hoarsely. “She took her from me, hid her somewhere.”

She frowns at him for another second longer before abruptly moving to his side, crouching down beside him and slipping one hand into his as she leans in towards him.

“The hospital’s psychiatric ward is in the basement. For some reason my mother has her own access code,” she whispers to him, squeezing his hand meaningfully. “She personally selects everyone who works in the ward and has access to it, and no one is allowed to discuss who any of the patients are.”

She pulls back and he meets her eyes with a shuddery breath, his own wide.

“The code is my brother’s birthday, August fifteenth.” He nods dazedly, repeating the date automatically.

She stands up and moves to the other side of the bed, brushing her brother’s hair off his forehead as another tear slips down her face. He stands as well, walking slowly towards the door.

“Thank you,” he chokes out, turning to watch her twine her and Henry’s hands together. "And I'm sorry."

“I hope you find your daughter,” she says quietly, head bowed.

~

He strides purposefully down the hallway with the spiked tea.

He forces himself not to pause when a defibrillator is called to the ICU over the hospital’s speakers, trying not to think about the Queen’s daughter crying over her brother’s body.

He spots an exit door with a keypad next to it and approaches, typing in the code and pushing the door open. As predicted, there are stairs leading down.

He calmly exits the stairwell and hands the drink off to the nurse behind the desk.

“Thank you,” she says, eagerly taking a sip. “What’s the commotion upstairs.”

He lets his expression fall a bit at the reminder.

“There’s a sick boy,” he says. “He took a bad turn.”

“How tragic. Is there any hope for-” The nurse sways for a moment, her expression dazed, before slumping on to her desk.

“Recovery?” He finishes her question idly, slipping behind the desk and pulling open a drawer. “Doubtful.”

He skims through files looking for any patient records, eventually finding a list of occupied rooms, several of which bear no names. He scoops up a keyring from the desk and snatches the coat off the rack next to it, quickly making his way down the hallway.

He puts his finger to his mouth in a bid for quiet as he passes a patient sweeping the floors, but the man doesn’t seem fully lucid, or at least not enough to care. He heads for the first unnamed door, peeking quickly through the viewing hatch, but he doesn’t recognize the person inside and moves on to the next.

Two more and he finds someone interesting. It’s not his Hattie, but she seems familiar and he unlocks the door curiously. The woman startles awake when the door opens and he suddenly realizes who she is, a sudden idea striking him just as quickly.

“Come with me,” he coaxes, holding out his hand. She takes it almost instinctively, watching him with confused eyes as he pulls her up.

“Who are you?” She asks. “Why are you doing this?”

Clearly she realizes she shouldn’t be there either.

“My name is Jefferson,” he says slowly, piecing together his idea as he speaks. “I need your help to do something that I can’t.”

“What is it?”

“There’s a man, his name is Mr. Gold, find him. All you have to do is tell him where you’ve been,” he says, holding her shoulders as she listens intently. “And that Regina locked you up.”

“Wait, what?”

“It’s very important,” he insists, ducking his head a little to catch her eyes again. “Mr. Gold’s gonna protect you, okay? But you _have_ to tell him Regina locked you up. He’ll know what to do… Do you understand?”

She nods. “Yes, I have to find Mr. Gold.”

“Good, good,” he says, holding the coat out to her so she can slip it on. He’ll just give Hattie his own jacket once he finds her. “I’ll get you out of here, but there’s someone else I have to find first.”

She follows him closely as he checks the remaining doors, finally spotting a bowed head of snarled blonde hair in the corner of the last. He nearly drops the keys in his haste to pull the door open, and he gestures for Belle to stay outside before he steps in.

“Hattie?” He calls, slowly approaching the figure huddled in the corner.

The head lifts slowly and he nearly drops to his knees in relief. She stares at him with dazed eyes for a moment before blinking rapidly, like she can’t quite piece together what she’s seeing.

“Hattie?” He repeats, and she frowns at him in confusion.

“... Jefferson?” She asks carefully, her voice cracking rustily. “Are you real?”

He chokes on a sob as he reaches out to her, slowly crouching in front of her when she flinches away from the touch, her eyes suddenly sharp with distrust as she watches him.

“Yes, it’s me,” he promises. “I’m gonna get you out of here.”

She blinks a few more times before finally, hesitantly reaching out to him.

“Jefferson? … Papa?” She asks quietly, her fingers unerringly finding the scar on his neck, gingerly touching it with just the tips of her fingers. “You came for me?”

“Yes,” he says, his own voice cracking now as tears blur his vision, and he can’t resist pulling her into his arms. “Yeah, baby, it’s me… I’m taking you out of here. I’m so sorry it took me so long.”

“ _Papa_ ,” she sobs, wrapping her arms around his neck. He presses his face into her hair for a too-short moment before pulling back.

“We have to go, okay? We don’t have long.”

She nods, slipping her hands into his and letting him pull her to her feet.

“I _knew_ you were real,” she says, a gleam in her eyes that makes her seem more present than she had before. “I knew I wasn’t crazy.”

His heart clenches painfully and he frames her face with his hands.

“You are _not_ crazy,” he says vehemently. “No matter what they’ve told you, it’s _all_ real. I love you.”

She nods eagerly, still crying but wearing a bright smile now. "I love you too."

“Come on,” he says, pulling her to the door.

He leads them back down the hall, thankfully finding the nurse still unconscious, and they quickly make their way up the stairs. He waits until there are no shadows visible on the other side of the frosted glass, then cracks the door open just enough to check for any hospital staff before gesturing the girls through.

They make it to the closet he had stowed his clothes in and Belle obligingly keeps watch for anyone headed their way while he redresses. Hattie slips on his jacket when he hands it to her, buttoning it all the way up to somewhat hide her own scar.

They mercifully make it out of the hospital without any trouble, most of the staff likely still occupied in the ICU, and he leads them to the street near the hospital where he had parked his car.

At some point Hattie and Belle had latched onto each other, likely drawing comfort from their fellow prisoner as they see Storybrooke for the first time since the curse had been cast. Belle flinches every time she hears honking or a car alarm in the distance, nearly cringing into Hattie’s side, while his daughter squints in the low-light of the rising sun, squeezing Belle’s hand tightly as she looks around suspiciously.

He feels a bit bad for having to separate them, but they need to be gone before Regina finds out what’s happened.

“Do you remember what I told you to do?” He asks Belle, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Yes,” she says, nodding eagerly. “Find Mr. Gold and tell him what happened. He’ll protect me.”

“That’s right.” He gives her a small smile. “Follow this road until you find his shop, the sign will say ‘Gold’s Pawn Shop’.”

She nods again and reluctantly releases Hattie’s hand, looking between them both nervously. “Will you two be okay?”

“We’ll be just fine.” He wraps his arm around Hattie’s shoulders when she presses into his side, clearly needing physical touch right now.

“Will I see you again?”

“Yeah,” Hattie assures her before he can even open his mouth, shooting Belle a wobbly but sincere smile. “We’ll all see each other again before you know it, promise.”

Belle nods and then walks away.

He leads Hattie to his car once she’s disappeared down the road, helping her into the passenger seat before getting in. He only relaxes once they’re out of town, on the back roads that lead to his house.

He glances to the side to see Hattie curled up sideways in the seat with her knees against her chest, watching him intently, and he reaches out one hand to her. She snags it immediately, wrapping both of her hands around his as she lays her head against her knees, finally turning her eyes to watch out the windshield.

By the time they get to the house she’s fallen asleep and he carefully picks her up, slipping one arm under her knees and the other behind her back. He winces a little at how light she is for a sixteen-year-old.

He lays her down on the couch in the den for now, covering her up with at least three throw blankets and pressing a kiss to her forehead.

He sits down next to her and lets his head rest against the back of the couch, squeezing his eyes shut as a few tears slip down his face. He gently runs his hands over her hair until sleep claims him as well.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey look, you get to meet Hattie! It always made me a bit sad that Belle didn't really seem to have any close friends in the show, she just kinda floated around and did research for everyone.
> 
> I really enjoyed writing this one, Jefferson is a fun character to mess around with. He's a bit unhinged after all the shit he's been through, but at the same time he knows A Lot. I was always disappointed the show didn't have him on again, Sebastian Stan did a really great job.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed! Please feel free to leave a comment, I always reply and they make my week! ^^  
> You can find me on tumblr at [ElvhenWitch](http://www.elvhenwitch.tumblr.com) ♥ and twitter at [Elfbich](https://twitter.com/elfbich)


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